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Show POLITICS DISTURBS BUSINESS- Haw the Chances and Chances of Political Politi-cal Sentiment Affect Wall Street. Henry Clews. Factors connected with politics and legislation hold the market in suspense and are producing au unsettled undertone, under-tone, In the states as well as at Washington, Wash-ington, party politics are assuming phases of conflict and ' crookedness" which suggest unwelcome tendencies in the working of our political i nstitutions. Schemes to defeat the results of elections and to abuse the power of majorities cast a shadow upon the political horizon; hori-zon; and the tendency towards broad sectional diiferences upon fundamental issues auggest political possibilies which none like to consider, but which, none the less, nil are unable to disregard. disre-gard. The sudden uprising of tho Farmers' party also has a disturbing tendency, It throw spractical politics into confusion and deties all possibility of forecasting the settlement of national questions upon whioh vast interests are dependent. The serious feature of this movement is that whilst its broad platform includes in-cludes barely a single sensible or wholesome issue and is little else than an expression of tho lowest form of popular ignorance, yet it is backed by a mass of voters possibly large enough to constitute it a determining power in the next federal elections. The virtual miscarriage of the federal election bill and of the cloture rule in the senate seems to have been welcomed irrespective irrespect-ive of party attachments, for the reason that it was calculated to revive sectional sec-tional hostilities at a time when tho bonds of amity bewteen the north and south were being cemented by new material interests. The possibility of the passage of the free coinage bill still continues to contribute, among other causes, to the dullness of the market; but this factor would have much more effect were it supposed there is much probability of the enactment of the measure. The unfortunate sudden decease de-cease of tho secretary of the treasury may be regarded as in some measnro favorable to the silver faction. Mr. Windom was undoubtedly the chief Intellectual force arrayed against further commitments to silver currency ; and it may be reasonably feared that the loss of his firm counsels will leave the president more exposed to tho astute management of the silver men. Unless a strong successor to the deceased de-ceased secretary is appointed, a new set of uncertainties must surround this question. |
